1588 BRAUN, G. / HOGENBERG, F. - Danorum Marca, uel Cimbricum. aut Daniae Regnum. . .[DENMARK]

The oldest preserved map of Denmark of Danish origin. Drawn by Marcus Jordan at the request of Duke Heinrich Rantzau, viceroy of Schleswig-Holstein. It is a new perception of Denmark founded on Jordan's own measurements and observations. It became an important source for the great contemporary Dutch cartographers (Ortelius and Mercator).
This finely engraved map is embellished with sea monsters, a sailing ship, coat of arms, and an allegorical scene suggesting Denmark's importance in exploration and military strength.
From: Liber 'Quartus Urbium Praecipuarum totius Mundi', published in Cologne
The small cartouche in upper right corner has a dedication to Rantzau, who was an important contributor of plans for the 'Civitates'- perhaps Braun & Hogenberg included this map in order not to offend him!
In the lower right corner is found a large cartouche with a Latin description of Denmark. Above this cartouche is Rantzau himself, as Mars the god of war, with his foot on the imprisoned Skipper Clemens a famous Danish rebel farmer.
The figure of Pallas Athene symbolises the Duke's well known humanistic interests. He was a friend of the famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, and received Brahe when he had to leave Denmark by the end of the 16th century.
Jordan's map is the only real map in Braun & Hogenberg's famous work "Civitates orbis terrarum", which has numerous views of the most important towns in Europe. The map appeared in Vol IV in 1588. On the verso a detailed Latin description of the various provinces of Dania.
From the greatest publication in this genre!. The 'Civitates' was compiled and written by George Braun, Canon of Cologne Cathedral. Braun gathered together vast amounts of information and draft plans to produce over 500 city views/maps published in six parts between 1572 and 1617. Most of these engravings were made by Simon Novellanus and Frans Hogenberg, many after drawings by Joris Hoefnagel.

TRANSLATION OF CARTOUCHE TEXT TOP RIGHT: Heinrich Rantzau, privy counsellor to King Frederick II of Denmark, governor of the two Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein and of Dithmarschen, and singular protector of scholars, herewith adorned his country and our work.

CARTOUCHE BOTTOM RIGHT: Denmark, or Cimbria, or Kingdom of Denmark, divided into its many parts by sounds and inlets, is bordered in the east by Sweden, in the south by Saxony and Westphalia, in the west by the North Sea (German Sea), in the north by Norway.
On the border with Sweden it has the provinces Scania, Halland and Blekinge. This area is pleasant, fertile and well populated. This is where Helsingborg is located, from which a narrow sound leads to the Island of Zealand, on which lie the famous toll station near the fortress of Kronborg, and the royal residence of Hafnia, or Copenhagen.
To the south of Zealand are Laland, Falster and some smaller islands and, further to the west, Langeland. And the Fyn, itself a separate Danish island, but smaller than Zealand; it is surrounded by 37 smaller islands. From Fyn a comfortable sea crossing leads to Schleswig, which is joined to the Cimbrian Peninsula, northern Jutland. From there Wenslia, a peninsula, stretches in a wedge shape towards Norway as far as the town of Skagen, the outermost tip of Cimbria.
Cimbria is accessible from Saxony via Holstein, with Wagrien, Storman and Dithmarschen. These are duchies that are happily subject to the Danish King. They are under the administration of the gracious, noble Count H. Rantzau, renowned in the fine arts and the art of warfare. 1585.

COMMENTARY BY BRAUN: "Denmark, the continent's outermost territory in the north, consists of distinct areas that are connected and joined up. The country is dotted with many bodies of water and varies according to the shapes of the straits. Its most elegant territories are the Duchy of Holstein, Dithmarschen, Schleswig, Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Jutland.
There are also many wonderful islands. Scania is superior is size and wealth to the other provinces of the kingdom. [...] It is the most beautiful territory in Denmark, has brave men, is rich in grain, brimming with trade goods, full of churches, noble palaces, administrative buildings, manor houses and monasteries. The capital is Lund and it is three miles from Malmö."

Reference: Van der Krogt 4, 4986, State 2; Taschen, Braun and Hogenberg, p.302.

Georg Braun ( 1541 - 1622)

The Civitates Orbis Terrarum (Atlas of Cities of the World) by Hogenberg was the second-oldest printed atlas in world cartography and the first atlas of towns. Its principal creators and authors were the theologian and editor Georg Braun, the most important engraver and publisher Frans Hogenberg, the engraver Simon van den Neuvel, the artist and draftsman Georg (Joris) Hoefnagel, the topographer Jacob van Deventer and others. Although published outside the Netherlands, the Civitates is, nevertheless, one of the best examples of the work of the Antwerp school of cartographers.
Key figures in the school included Abraham Ortelius, Gerardus Mercator, and several other geographers. The Civitates reflects the Flemish engraving style typical of Dutch atlases of the period. In addition, correspondence among Braun, Hogenberg, and Ortelius clearly indicates that they conceived the atlas in Antwerp.

The atlas contains more than 500 maps and represents an entire era in the history of town mapping. The atlas was published in six volumes between 1572 and 1617. To obtain the originals for his work, Braun corresponded extensively with map sellers and scholars in different cities and countries. The authors also conducted their own investigations.
However, these were not true geodetic surveys, but detailed on-location drawings of panoramic views of the towns made from some high point. Georg Hoefnagel made most of the engravings that decorate the Civitates, from its first volume to its last, from such drawings. Hoefnagel drew images of many towns in France, Italy, England, and Spain.
He and his son Jacob subsequently created representations of Austrian and Hungarian towns for the Civitates. In addition to these overview plans, the atlas includes more detailed maps based on topographic surveys, particularly those of Jacob van Deventer (15??-1575). Correspondingly, the maps show the systematic structure of the towns' building up, with perspective representations of various quarters and individual buildings.
The town is usually placed in the background, while the foreground shows its surrounding countryside and detailed depictions of typical town inhabitants.
These visual representations of people not only augmented the maps' content but also served another purpose. Braun and Hogenberg illustrated the pages of the Civitates with figures of local inhabitants to prevent the Turks from using the maps for military purposes, since Islam forbids images of humans.

Of the total number of towns, only a couple of dozen are located outside Europe: in Asia, Africa, and South America. This shows extremely limited cartographic knowledge of the world, due to the insufficient development of science and mapmaking practices in the second half of the sixth century. At the same time, it is impossible not to be astonished at the huge quantity - by the standards of the time - of material included in the atlas.

Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates was an enormous success. It was republished and supplemented by new sections many times. The maps it contained became exemplary; other publishers frequently reproduced them in smaller formats as illustrations for books and maps.

After Franz Hogenberg's death, the atlas's typographic plates remained in Cologne, in Abraham Hogenberg's possession. When Abraham died in 1653, his heirs evidently sold them to Johannes Janssonius, an active and skilled publisher of books and atlases in Amsterdam. In 1657, Janssonius issued the atlas in eight volumes in a completely revised edition, with illustrations arranged by country. A large number of quite new engravings were added to it, while outdated prints were omitted. After Janssonius's death in 1664, his grandson Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge acquired the engravings and used some to compile his own atlas, which appeared in 1682. In 1694, the energetic Amsterdam publisher Frederick de Wit purchased van Waesberge's copper plates and equipment at auction; he was well known for his numerous maps and atlases. De Wit organized a new edition, enriched with new engravings.

After de Wit's time, at the turn of the eighteenth century, the copper plates for the atlas passed to the publisher Pieter van der Aa (1659 - 1733). He acquired them in Leyden and used them for an atlas published in 1729. This publication included a diverse mixture of engravings from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

After van der Aa, ownership of town maps with the publisher's imprint of de Wit passed to the publishing house of Covens and Mortier. The multiple reproductions of these 16th-century perspective views and maps by various publishers over the centuries can be explained by their rich historical and geographical content. At the same time, no atlas of the world's cities in the history of global cartography matches the Civitates Orbis Terrarum in size and fullness.

In addition to its historical, geographical, and cartographic significance, the Civitates is also of great artistic value. That is why, to this day, the town maps in the atlas have adorned the most exquisite interiors and attracted the attention not only of specialists in the field but of all admirers of fine art.